FOREfront--Working for the People of
Volume 06 Issue
During the year 2002, the
and the
future of all
IN-LIEU FRANCIIISE FEE - The Placer
collecting the
4% in-lieu franchise fee on your water, sewer, and refuse bills effective
The city council appealed the
verdict to the 3rd District Court of Appeal. The court ruled against
the city
April 2002, but the council appealed to the
Court returned the city’s request to
the 3rd District Court. After spending tens of thousands of
your
dollars fighting the rulings, the city is still collecting the fee. Grade “F’.
UTILITY USER’S TAX - The Placer
Roseville put on the November 2000
ballot, was a special tax because the tax would be budgeted and
appropriated
solely for police, fire, parks and recreation or library services; therefore,
required a two-
thirds
vote. It received only a 52.1% vote. On the other hand, the grass-root Measure
“S “, to repeal
the tax,
required only a simple majority and passed with a 51.2% vote.
Third District Court and the case
will be heard this January. To the Supreme Court?
Meanwhile
the city
collects the tax. Fair? Grade “F”.
ENRON POWER PLANT - A deal that is too good to be true usually isn’t. Enron’ s agreement
to give
share of $l
million a year for 25 years would have allowed Enron to build a 900-megawatt
power
plant on
city property.
would get
10,000 tons of pollutants a year in return.
agreement
with Enron before the environmental studies were completed. Grade “F’.
AUTOMATED TRAIN HORNS -
horns at
the
Judith Donato and Frank Weinstein. To them,
system will
reduce train-horn noise. A comfort to
HILLSBOROUGH NEIGHBORHOOD LOSES -
Concerns by Hillsborough residents of traffic
and air
quality degradation that an Albertson’s 24-hour store would cause were
disregarded by
the council
on a 4 to 1 vote (Roccucci agreeing). That is the seventh
neighborhood the council
sided with
developers rather than residents. Crocker Oaks, Arbor View, Cresthaven,
Blue Oaks,
Crowne Point, and
residents approach
the council with valid concerns, a flag should go up in favor of residents not
developers.
Grade “F”.
YMCA, FITNESS AND
offer of free
land and a city-built swimming pool because residents did not believe their tax
dollars
should be
used to compete with the private sector. At issue was that the YMCA would
unfairly
compete with
private fitness centers in the same manner as the
also a
non-profit organization, would not pay taxes and be subsidized by the city. The
lost $250,
000 and its revenues did not cover operating costs. The city is awash in
recreational
facilities
and should not be in the money losing venture of a fitness center. Grade “F”.
SALES TAX BATTLE - Assembly Bill 680
proposed by Assemblyman Darrell Steinberg D-
less
financially well off jurisdictions. One-third of the sales tax would remain
where it was
collected;
one-third would be allocated on population; and, one-third would be based on
affordable housing, homeless shelter and open space.
of
grounded in
solid theory. Grade “A”.
WORKERS SNUBBED - When two groups, one
from the Galleria, the other from Sutter-Roseville
hospital,
approached the council to advise the city that strikes may occur the council
was rude and
uncaring
believing that the speakers would filibuster the council. The groups were not
given a chance
to inform the
council of potential problems strikes may raise for the city. Public safety
could be
involved
among other problems. The council has the duty to listen to all speakers in the
best interest
of the
public. Grade “F”.
TRAFFIC PLANNED TO BECOME WORSE -
standard,
Level of Service (LOS) for intersections is “C”. A LOS of F means total intersection
gridlock or
failure. “C” means traffic moves with some delay at intersections. Because of
pending
development, the council determined it would be OK if 42 intersections would be
LOS
“D”. Go to Riverside/Cirby or Douglas/Sunrise intersections and you can picture
what the 42
intersections
will be like in a few years -- just because of promised development. Grade “F”.
INDIAN CASINO - It would appear the
County made the correct decision in accepting the Rumsey
Indian Tribe’s offer to fully mitigate
the impacts its casino would have on the County.
acting
likewise while
casino, Grade
A. For their insight,
Grade “D “.
MEASURE K AND MONEY
Measure K 50.2% yes, 49.8% no. The
measure required a 55% vote to pass. Antelope
brought the yes
vote to 53.8%. It was the voter who decided Measure K’s
fate.
One of the issues that
came out during the campaign was that the District had 460
students
attending
arose was that
maybe there was no overcrowding, just uncounted non-district students.
During Measure D’s campaign
in the March election, the District did not reveal that a
community
park in Antelope would be improved using bond money from Measure D.
In both cases, the voter as
well as the District, would have been better served if the
information
had been disclosed in the ballot statements.
Another issue was large
contributions from companies whose livelihood is tied to
development and see
the shift to pay for schools to taxpayers a good investment. The
District raised $100,668.77 in its campaign
to pass Measure K. Contributions of more
than $2,500
came from:
> Stone and Youngberg
LLC
(Bond underwriters,
> Williams and Paddon
Architects and Planners,
(
> Reynen
& Bardis Development, LLC
(
> Janet Barrett, Real
Estate Agent
(
> McCarthy Building
Company
(Nationwide with
> John Mourier Construction
(
>
(Rocklin): $5,000
> Point 2 Structural
Engineers, Inc.
(
> Del Web
(Lincoln Hills):
$3,564.77
> Homeownership
Issues Fund, BIA
(
>
(
> Signature Properties
(
> Westpark
Associates
(
> Capital Engineering
Consultants, Inc.
(Sacramtteto):
$2,500
> LPA Architecture
Planning Interior Design
(
Voters cast 35,871 votes in
10,241 more votes than
in the March election. The voters decided the election.
READER TAKES EXCEPTION TO RELATIONSHIP
OF CITY, CHAMBER
By Theresa Mclnnes,
a
I take exception with the letter from
Howard Rudd, president of the chamber of
Commerce, published
by The Press-Tribune on Oct. 26 under “Your View”.
Mr Rudd was
responding to your editorial regarding the Chamber’s position on the in-
lieu
franchise fee and the utility tax. He chided you for not having researched that
which
was already
“written on the subject”, and for failing to “interview those directly involved
in the
topic”.
I would like Mr. Rudd to know that I
found your editorial very well researched and
based on the
facts. The people of
issues have
indeed hit serious roadblocks in the courts. The chamber is now supporting
the city’s unfounded and extremely expensive appeals on the
issues to yet higher courts.
Your insight on these matters is
remarkable, and you certainly had a right to ask why
the chamber is
not opposing such taxes. The answer is clear: The Chamber is
supportive
because it is in the city’s pocket. In fact, it is the city’s political arm.
Financial records recently obtained
from the city under the provisions of the Public
Records Act show that the Chamber
received at least $162,000 from the city between
January 2000 and July 2002. In my
circles, that is a decent amount of “pocket change”.
Included were
$60,000 for chamber membership fees for the city as an entity, plus a few
thousand more
for individual Chamber memberships for city VIPs and other staff
members. The
balance paid for rental on the technical center, various other
expenditures
and numerous chamber sponsored dinners attended by city council members
and their
spouses or significant others as well as the city manger and other staff.
I wonder -- would current City
Councilmember Earl Rush still keep his paid position as
the Chamber’s public relations director if these highly
questionable payments from the
city were
discontinued? And while we’re asking, should not the Chamber make its own
way from its
private business membership dues, rather than collecting taxpayer dollars?
Mr. Rudd also suggested that without
the income from these taxes, the city is in danger
of falling
into a horrible abyss of unsafe neighborhoods, no parks and recreation programs
and low
quality of fire, paramedic and law enforcement services. Haven’t we all heard
that recital
from the city’s management and from most council members, and it still has
not
penetrated our thick heads?
Quite frankly, I think that it is the
height of arrogance to ask the citizens of
tighten their
belts for “the good of the city”, while all along the city’s management and
all but one (Roccucci) of the City Council think it perfectly all right
to squander
thousands
upon thousands of dollars on junkets all over the
countries, to
entertain developers and their toadies, council member campaign managers,
and to eat
and drink lavishly in expensive hotels and restaurants, and buy flowers for the
chamber and
for acquaintances - all on public money.
Well, I do not think it is all right
at all, and worthy of a look by the Placer County
Grand Jury.
As a Republican of long standing, I am
delighted that Gary Mortenson is the editor of
The Press-Tribune.
He is a man of fairness and courage and his editorials reflect it.
* This article appeared in The Press- Tribune
The
battle is only won by standing and fighting. Author unkown
WHO BENEFITS*
The Public Information Act
is an important part of holding public officials
accountable
to the taxpayer by allowing access to show their use of public money
for
travel, conferences and other types of spending. This article is part of a
series
to
inform
are
acting as stewards of the public’s monies in performing their duties.
The City of
Commerce
Board of Directors Installation Dinner last January at
Additionally, it cost the taxpayers
$42.50 for each dinner of the following City
representatives
and their significant others: Mayor Gamar & Bill
Heinlein;
Councilmember Gina Garbolino and husband James Garbolino;
Councilmember
Rocky Rockholm
and wife Dorothy Rockholm; Councilmember Richard Rocucci
and
wife Pauline Rocucci; Councilmember Earl Rush and
wife Virginia Rush; City
manager
Alan Johnson; and, Assistant to the city manager Julia Burrows and
husband
Chris Burrows.
For what must have been a
“gala event”, the City was billed $767.50. Could the
money
have been spent to benefit the taxpayer rather than to provide for a social
gathering
of the city council and city officials?
This year, on January 21,
another Chamber of Commerce Installation Dinner will
be held.
Will the City “sponsor” another table for $300 and pick up the tab for
dinner
attendees?
*Source: City of
FORE’s
SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM
FORE will be awarding two $500.00
scholarships for the 2003-04 academic school year
to
a four-year
college or university. Application is in a letter form and should be submitted
by
Sample letter applications may be
obtained through high school scholarship offices or on
the web at
www.friendsofroseville.org.
Two initiatives have been circulating
in
to require
voter approval for annexation of land to the City of
withdrawn from
circulation due to a technicality in wording. We have been told that the
word
“annexation” will not stand up to a legal challenge in the courts. The
proponents
plan to
rewrite the initiative to be legally sufficient. They indicated that they were
disappointed that
they could not move forward with the initiative because many people
had called
them to help circulate the petition.
The proponents of the second
initiative, To Repeal the City of Roseville’s In-Lieu
Franchise Fee, said they will continue
to circulate the petition in an attempt to qualify
it for the
ballot.
COPYRIGHT 2000-2003, FORE,
WORKING FOR THE PEOPLE OF
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